Product Details

• Actors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden
• Directors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Gabrielle Beaumont, Robert Becker, Cliff Bole
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English, French
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: May 5, 1998
• Run Time: 46 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0792146654
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #248,737 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This ingenious and highly entertaining episode finds Worf (Michael Dorn) joining his son, Alexander (Brian Bonsall), and Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) in a 19th-century, Wild West playground on the Enterprise's holodeck suite. The simple computer program, featuring six-shooters, saloons, and heroes and villains, however, gets far more complicated when an experiment conducted by Geordi (LeVar Burton) and Data (Brent Spiner) inadvertently turns the entertainment into a dangerous trap.

Suddenly, every bad guy is an evil version of Data, whose advanced android abilities quickly escalate the gun-totin' mayhem. While this story sounds similar to the science fiction film Westworld, the episode is largely played for laughs and whimsy. Spiner, a consummate character actor, gets a rare opportunity to play a variety of personalities, and Sirtis throws herself into good-natured, Western genre clichés. --Tom Keogh

From the Back Cover

When a supply ship is delayed, the crew of the Enterprise has an opportunity to pursue recreational interests. While Geordi (LeVar Burton) conducts an experiment with Data (Brent Spiner), Worf (Michael Dorn) and Alexander (Brian Bonsall) enter a holodeck and travel to the Old West for a wild showdown.

Unfortunately, a malfunction in the ship's computer interrupts the fun and a murderous outlaw, who looks exactly like Data, kidnaps Alexander. Worf attempts to freeze the program but the safety device fails. Now the vacation has become a potentially deadly nightmare filled with diabolical Datas, but the question remains: Who is the fastest gun in the universe?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The holodeck malfunctions...once again, October 26, 1999

By 

Abby - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 134: A Fistful of Datas [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Alexander drags Worf to the holodeck to the Wild West and Troi shows up as the "mysterious stranger" (I'm really not into the whole Worf/Troi thing). At the same time, Geordi is running a scan on Data and the two merge- resulting in Wild Westerisms in Data and too many Datas in the holodeck. Several cute and funny lines and good sets, but overall not one of my favorites.

4.0 out of 5 stars Worf has a "Father/Son" time in the Wild West, September 5, 2006

By 

Critical Thinker - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 134: A Fistful of Datas [VHS] (VHS Tape)

As others have so repeatedly stated, it is another holodeck disaster film (At this point, if I had been on the ship, I would have written a complaint to the captain saying that the holodeck is becoming a huge hazard and we should just get rid of it until we're smart enough to make it disaster proof). But, we can't deny the humor of watching Data first acting as his normal self, and then suddenly switch to a cowboy mentality. Also, Brent Spiner must have had fun playing multiple roles in this episode (not the first of course) and we can't deny the fact that it would be good for Worf to take a vacation with Alexander for once. The basic plot goes as follows: The Enterprise crew is on a 2 day vacation from exploration (not that this means anything isn't going to happen). Worf, Alexander, and Troi all decide to go on a holodeck adventure in the Wild West, Capt. Picard is playing his Kataan flute (and being constantly interuppted by the other senior officers), Dr. Crusher is writing a play, and Geordi and Data decide to experiment with Data and the Enterprise. Well, somehow Geordi and Data's messing around starts affecting the ship and the holodeck (replicators start producing cat food all over the ship, Dr. Crusher's play suddenly turns into Data's poetry, all the holodeck characters turn into Data with his abilities, etc.) A delightful episode, my only complaint about this one is that the ship's safeguards for the holodeck go off (Yes, I know it would ruin the story, but it doesn't make sense unlike other episodes where something alien or whatever hotwires the Enterprise). Definitely more comical and mild than others, which is a good thing every once in awhile for Star Trek (Compare this with Schisms and you'll definitely understand what I mean.)